Its maker - Greek luthier Emmanuel Venios, known as ‘Manol’ – was ‘the Stradivarius of the oud'.

Note: if you click any of the above images, you will see it much-enlarged, annotated, and in its particular 'correct' format.

When recording these fretless solos Ara discovered he was not ‘playing’ Manol’s marvellous instrument; he was 'listening', as it told its story.

‘It was’, says Ara Dinkjian, ‘the first and only time I had entered a studio without any preparation or ideas as to what I was going to play.’

Ara Dinkjian was born in New Jersey in 1958.

His father Onnik Dinkjian is regarded as one of the great Armenian vocal artists.

Father and son do perform together, but in the world at large Ara Dinkjian is known primarily as a writer of songs that have been sung in many languages – songs enormously popular in Greece, Turkey and in the Middle East.

In America and in the rest of Europe he is known primarily as a virtuoso lutenist and leader of his own ensembles, most famously Night Ark, with the great jazz bassist Marc Johnson.

In his US hometown Ara has been the organist at his local Armenian church for 40 years.

He says, ‘One of my feet is in the East and another is in the West...I thank god for music, god in the very general sense, not in any dividing sense.’

On Conversations with Manol Ara Dinkjian plays an instrument which sounds every bit as beautiful as it looks.

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Details of each track are presented in the following order:

BROADCAST TIME TRACK NUMBER AND TITLE COMPOSER PUBLISHING AND COPYRIGHT DETAILS RECORDING COMPANY AND CD NUMBER distributor/ source details, like this, in lower-case ARTIST AND CD TITLE Duration of track Description of track, in lower-case.Where relevant, further info links to information, gigs/events/related programs

THE WEEKEND PLANET’ SUN 22.09.13

2205THEME:details below, as per the original CD. This cut is also on these compilations:

It begins as an impressionistic duet for Joseph’s oud and Joey DeFrancesco’s organ, then goes into a groove when Joseph’s young brother James arrives, playing req – a small frame-drum with jingles in its rim.

This is both lyrical and grooving, with a whiff of bittersweet. However ‘unlikely’ is the instrumental combination, it sounds unforced, perfectly ‘natural.’

SEGUE

2242CD CUT 3, ‘MUGHAM HUMAYUN’(PRESUMABLY) TRADITIONAL AZERBAIJANI, ARR AND/OR IMPROVISED UPON BY RAMIZ GULIYEV(PRESUMABLY) THE PIECE IS PUBLIC DOMAIN. ARR PUB NOT SPEC.FELMAY FY8197no current Australian distributorworldwide and info: www.felmay.itRAMIZ GULIYEV – ‘DIALOGUES WITH THE TAR’8: 17Modal solo – absolutely solo - on a long-necked, wire-strung lute: very virtuosic, but not just flashy – this has gravitas.

Ramiz Guliyev is the pre-eminent virtuoso of the Azerbaijani version of the tar.

The Azerbaijani tar has more strings (11) than the Persian version.

An Azerbaijani player generally stands up to play and holds the instrument’s body against his chest.

The late great Russian cellist/ conductor Mstislav Rostropovich described Guliyev as ‘a miracle. He is the Paganini of the East.’

2325CD CUT 9, ‘FUTURE’ARA DINKJIANKRIKOR MUSIC (BMI)/ BUG MUSIC LTD.KRIKOR MUSIC KM5053no Australian distributorreadily available worldwide via http://www.cdbaby.comartist’s site: www.aradinkjian.comARA DINKJIAN – ‘CONVERSATIONS WITH MANOL’7: 43Oud, solo, played on a very special instrument.

This piece is initially sombre-improvisatory, then more song-like.

This oud was made in 1907 in Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the legendary Greek luthier Emmanuel Venios, known as ‘Manol’.

His trio colleagues then arrive – double bassist Ben Waples and his brother James Waples on drums.

Their two young guests then join - tenor saxophonist Karl Laskowski and trumpeter Ken Allars. The piece is ‘measured’, but nicely unpredictable. It has a very good bass feature, mid-way, and a ditto trio section with piano to fore, before the horns return.

MIKE NOCK GIG ALERT (Sydney)

He plays every Saturday night in September at Foundry 616616 Harris St, Ultimo